


In The Company Of Starlight

by HopeNight



Category: DCU, Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Earth-1, Earth-38, Food, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Kara ends up with Earth-38 Barry, Krypton, Multi, Mythology References, Past Kara Danvers/Mon-El, Post season finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 21:18:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12262290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeNight/pseuds/HopeNight
Summary: In the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion, Kara is left scrambling to piece together the wreckage of her life. When she meets the Dr. Bartholomew J. Allen of Earth-38, things just proceed to get even more complicated from there.In which Kara Danvers mourns a friend, mourns a relationship, does a dance, wonders about the multiverse, falls in like, gets her foodie on, chases a criminal, makes an ally, breaks the sound barrier, tells a story, meets a familiar face, gets some advice, gives an awkward kiss, and finds love in a not-so-hopeless place -- not necessarily in that order.





	1. In The Company Of Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been written on and off since about May. Mainly because I graduated and didn't want to start revisions on scripts immediately. I've been doing this when I needed a break from resumes and cover letters and other terribly grown-up things. It was going to be just a quick little thing, which grew into almost 20k, but isn't that how it is? 
> 
> Although I do need to give [alicebluegown16](http://alicebluegown16.livejournal.com/) credit for helping with the idea when it was in its infancy. Consider it part of a very, very early birthday present, huh? 
> 
> This takes place after Supergirl season 2 and the Flash season 3. All that is canon until then. 
> 
> Also I stole the Phantasm name from _Batman: Mask of the Phantasm_ because that is too good a name not to use more, DC. Any and all reference from Kryptonian mythology is from various wikis and a huge comprehensive book of Superman.

When Kara was a little girl on Krypton, her favorite bedtime stories were the myths of her people. On the whole, Kryptonians preferred hearing about things that actually happened. There were very few instances of actual fiction on her homeworld. 

(Perhaps that is why she double majored in English Literature and Communications in college. She loves how humans are such storytellers by nature, weaving dreams out of whole cloth and building worlds with only their minds. It is something that Kryptonians never did. It was the furthest thing from a reminder of all she lost. Her planet was dead, but there were a million new ones for her to inhabit until something fit on the pages of books. 

And when that didn’t happen, she built her world herself.) 

Her father was her preferred storyteller. Zor-El learned the stories from his grandmother, who was the equivalent of a historian focusing on the Kryptonian creation myths. 

Kara remembers them all. 

Kara loved them all. 

She closed her eyes and drifted off to the sound of her father’s slow and rumbling voice, as steady as he ever was. 

Her favorite story was Nightwing and Flamebird. Romance was not something openly discussed on Krypton. Most of her people were betrothed and married by the time they were (in Earth years) twenty. Her parents were such a case. 

(As much as Kara’s own preconceptions and notions of her parents have been shattered, she would like to believe that they did love each other.) 

Her aunt and uncle, however, were the rare scandal of two people who genuinely fell in love with each other and broke their betrothals to marry. It was shocking, but Kara remembers how they would gaze at each other… 

(She wishes that Kal – that _Clark_ – could have known how much they loved each other. How much that they loved him.) 

For as long as her father would tell her bedtime stories, Kara would ask for the story of Nightwing and Flamebird. Her father would tell it to her with a soft look and an indulgent smile that most Kryptonians would say looked out of place on Zor-El. 

Kara, once on Earth and reading Earth stories in place of bed, would still run through those old stories locked away. She refused to let it slip away, to let them be forgotten. 

She told Alex the story once. It was a few years into the sisterhood of the Danvers girls. Alex was going to head off to college soon and Kara wanted to give her something to remind Alex of her there. 

Kara gave her Krypton, her favorite story, and it went like this.

* * *

 _In the beginning of all things, there was Rao who awoke wreathed in red flame. He breathed his existence and beat back the Dark that wished to encroach upon him. Eventually, he won this battle by cutting open a vein on his arm and let the stars pour out of him to make the night sky._

_After a time, however, Rao had become lonely. He wished for company more than anything else. So he reached into the magma on Krypton and sculpted a woman from liquid rock. As his breath cooled her, he ignited a fire of life into her eyes with his own._

_The unintended consequence of this was as follows as his breath cooled her form, so did it cool the ground underneath her feet. As he ignited a fire of life into her eyes, so did he ignite the fire of life unto the planet._

_Rao was pleased with his companion and named her Flamebird. With the life now growing on Krypton, he asked her for her help to guard it. Flamebird, wanting nothing more than a purpose to her existence, agreed to this._

_Rao, looking at the planet that he had created as a consequence of Flamebird’s birth, made another as well. His name was Vohc, who Rao wished to build on the foundations that he started. Vohc, in awe of Rao, agreed to do this for him. Of course, soon enough, Vohc had covered the world. The first of things, however, rarely are the best of them. Rao sent Flamebird to burn it all so that Vohc may build it again. This is why Krypton is covered in the desert sands._

_The three lived in a relative peace for a time. Rao would keep back the ever present Darkness in the sky while Vohc would build and Flamebird would wipe the slate clean. Rao’s continuous presence in the Dark, however, had an unintended consequence that no one could foresee._

_As he kept sentry, Rao saw a shape in the Dark. Clothed in the darkest parts of the Void and eyes made from the stars of Rao’s veins, a being kneeled before him and asked for a name._

_Rao, seeing this starry-eyed being, an unintended life from him and the Dark gifted the name of Nightwing._

* * *

In the aftermath of the Daxamite invasion, it takes time for the stories of the moving shadows to reach the ears of the DEO. There is rebuilding that needs doing. Daxamite soldiers dropped their tech when the lead poisoned them and turned them to dust. The DEO has to make sure that doesn’t fall in the wrong sort of hands. 

Stories of strange shadows that would attack the Daxamites and protect everyone else were just whispered by humans and aliens. 

It appears that gossip is universal either way. Eventually, these stories reach the ears of the DEO. How the shadows of the soldiers would break their necks. How people in the midst of trouble would find themselves pulled into the darkness and taken somewhere safe. 

Shadows would provide cover to those fighting back and become the thing that the all too brief invading force would fear. Some would see a hooded figure, the flash of a pale hand, the soft laughter of a male voice in the night. 

And that laugh promised pain to those who crossed him wrong and salvation to those who needed it.

* * *

Kara learns what happened to Barry on a perfectly wretched day in National City. It’s been a week since they shot lead into the atmosphere to stop the Daxamite Invasion in its tracks. It’s been a week since Mon-El left. 

(It’s all that Kara can do to keep her head above water. There’s too much to do that she can’t even process her feelings properly. Currently, she sees this as a blessing. For all her smiles and sunshine, she can feel those darker emotions twist in her gut. Sooner or later, they will hit her. 

She wants it to be later. She focuses on her work for now.) 

Clean-up on the city is well underway. Aide has been sent. Clark flies out when he can to help Kara and the others. 

It’s been a week. A lot of the debris have been cleared away. Kara tries not to feel the absence within her bed ever night. She curls on her side and closes her eyes and tries to will her body to sleep. 

Sleep has been hard in coming since Rhea set her in her sights. 

It seems perfectly appropriate that a week after the failed invasion that the sky would open up and let loose a downpour. 

Kara has never really gotten used to rain even with a decade plus experience on Earth. Krypton was a dry, desert climate. Her powers come from the sun. Fighting in rain is the actual worse. Humans see rain as a symbol of cleansing and renewal. Kara just sees it as a mess. 

Still the perfectly wretched downpour day matches the mood when Cisco Ramon sends a message from Earth-1. It’s short and concise and boils down to that _Barry’s gone_. 

It feels like a punch in the gut to Kara. All of the air rushes out of her. In her desperation to hold onto something, she takes a chunk out of an already damaged wall. 

Mon-El is gone and can never return on pain of death. Now Barry’s trapped inside the Speed Force or something. It doesn’t look like he’s coming back. 

It hurts. It hurts a lot. 

Wally will do a great job. She only spoke with him briefly but J’onn had good things to say about him. J’onn does not give his praises lightly. 

It’s just that Barry was her Super Friend, her super bro. She never made friends easily, but her and Barry… 

It felt natural as breathing to be friends with Barry Allen. Like it does with Winn and Lena and Alex and J’onn and…everyone. 

“I’m so sorry, Kara.” 

They’re all there, around her. She’s not sure who says it. Winn’s hand is gentle on her arm. Alex looks concerned, more for her than Barry. Rao, they never met. J’onn’s face is all fatherly compassion. 

Kara’s hands tremor but she keeps voice steady. 

“I need to go.” 

The message mentioned a memorial. The cover story will be a disappearance rather than a death. People will believe Barry is dead soon enough. The community on Earth-1 will know the truth. Kara is tangentially a part of it. 

“Whatever you need.” 

This time it’s definitely Alex speaking to her: eyes gentle, hand warm. Kara needs a lot of things. She needs Mon-El back. She needs to turn back time and stop Rhea before the situation got out of hand. She needs to not be stuck in the Phantom Zone and have her little cousin grow up without her. 

She needs to go back to Earth-1 before Barry disappeared and tell him that even though they knew each other for a short time that being friends with him was a privilege she would never forget. 

He reminded her of the joy of heroics. That there was more than the darkness and heaviness that felt like it was wrapping a noose around your neck. 

Kara wants to rage, scream, burn her powers out of her eyes, and then crawl into her bed and sleep for a week. 

Instead, Kara just accepts a hug from her sister. 

There’s still so much to do.

* * *

 _Nightwing became Rao’s guardian against the Dark. As life began to teem, more than those Rao created himself, there were evils that hid from Rao’s light in the Dark. Nightwing, half of this Darkness, could find what even Rao could not and dispatch them._

_A consequence of this, however, was that Nightwing could not walk amongst the others. He could not exist in the same space as them for long. It was a lonely existence. He felt like he did not belong in either place. Yet his purpose was his and he would protect those who did not know he existed._

_He knew they existed. It was enough._

_It had to be enough._

_Until he looked out of the Dark and saw **her**. _

_Until she looked into the Dark and saw **him.**_

_Then it would truly never, ever be enough again._

* * *

They hold the memorial at the testing site that they used as a base during the Dominator attack on Earth-1. Kara wishes it was somewhere else, but it was the only space where they could all really be together for this. 

Everyone is banged up. Team Arrow looks the absolute worst for wear (apparently they got blown up). Oliver has a little boy with him now who is apparently his son. Everyone, however, has new dark circles under their eyes and a stiffness in their gait.  

Apparently, May on Earth-1 is just the same as May on Earth-38: full of battles coming to a head and the near end of the world. 

They’re all dressed tastefully in black, all ready to mourn Barry. The stillness and the dark atmosphere of mourning seem inherently _wrong_. Barry was so full of energy and life that all of this betrays what made Barry… _Barry_ to begin with. 

Iris realizes this first. She stands. Her eyes are red rimmed, engagement ring on her finger, dark hair falling around her shoulders. She clings to her father’s hand, but her bearing is proud. 

She refuses to break under this pressure. 

“Barry would absolutely _hate_ this.” 

Everyone chuckles at that, weakly. It’s a start. 

It’s like something turns on inside of Iris after she makes this pronouncement. 

She starts talking about Barry, about the little things she wants to remember. Like how when he was twelve he wanted to be a herpetologist, so he begged and begged to go to reptile camp. Then he got bit by a spitting lizard of some sort and had to get stitches his second day there. 

Oliver tells the story of how he first met Barry, who walked into a crime scene and babbled awkwardly at everyone. Yet he came to a party for Oliver’s mother even though it was kind of a dud. 

Kara tells the story of how he ran up the building to grab her and then wasn’t sure what to do when her sweater caught on fire. Felicity cracks up and tells Kara that a similar thing happened to her. 

They laugh. Then they cry. Then they drink a lot even though it does nothing for Kara. Then Kara starts singing “Singin’ in the Rain” with Joe West in tribute to Barry. And they cry and laugh more. Mascara is everywhere. Even Mick Rory pours one out for Barry Allen, saying Len would have wanted it and that he wasn’t so annoying. 

After all the humans get through their hangovers, Kara prepares to head home. 

Iris stops her first. 

She looks so thoroughly breakable and as strong as Kryptonian in that moment. Humans are amazing like that. 

“I wanted to give you something, Kara.” 

“Me?” 

Iris presses something in Kara’s hand. 

“I think Barry would have wanted you to have it.” 

Iris pulls her hand away. Kara looks down. It’s Barry’s chest emblem. 

Her grip tightens, human tight. She stares at Iris with wide eyes. 

“Are you sure?” 

Iris squeezes her hands and smiles. 

“Oliver has one too. And we have a third. I…I know you two weren’t friends for long, but Barry thought the world of you.” 

“It was mutual. He…” 

Kara swallows. Iris’s grip tightens around her hand. 

“Can I give you a hug, Iris?” 

Iris smiles. Her smile feels warm but not burning, not blinding. 

Kara hugs her. Mon-El dances across her mind’s eye, but she doesn’t tell Iris about him. Barry and Iris were in a league of love all their own. She and Mon-El were…undefined still. It wouldn’t be right to compare it to them. 

Instead, Kara closes her eyes. 

“May his journey to Rao’s light be without fear and without pain. May he be unafraid and strong. May he be surrounded by your love. May his love surround you, Iris West.” 

He’s not dead. Cisco was very clear on that. 

But the _he might as well be_ echoes in everything that they do. She blesses Barry in the way of her people. 

Iris just hugs her tighter at that. Kara strokes her hair. 

She wishes grief and mourning didn’t feel like old friends in her life.

* * *

 _Wreathed in the fires of Rao, Flamebird stared into the darkness as she finished her work. The first thing that she saw were the stars that made his eyes. She had never seen such a sight in her life._

_Standing within the embrace of his shadows, Nightwing took in Flamebird properly. She was awashed in light and warmth, all the things that he could never have but always wanted. More than anything, he wished to step forth and introduce himself to her._

_Flamebird reached out her hand._

_Nightwing reached out his own._

_Flamebird’s light burned some of Nightwing’s hand away._

_Nightwing’s dark absorbed some of Flamebird’s light._

_In pain, they jumped apart from each other._

_But the longing remained. Oh did it remain._

* * *

The old adage remains true, even in the aftermath of destruction, life goes on. 

Life goes on as it always does with one foot in front of the other, stumbling along the best that it can. 

Kara barely notices the passages of time as the days trip into weeks. The respective pains slowly lessen more as the city rebuilds and as Kara wakes with the dawn. Barry’s emblem sits on a place of honor nestled in between a picture of her family and friends. She wraps herself into a sweatshirt that Mon-El favored, traces the cracked spine of _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_ left on the bedside table. 

Mon-El would have made a good Gryffindor, she thinks. Barry, however, would have made a good Hufflepuff, like her. 

It was a silly thought, but it made her smile. 

She starts to sprawl out in her bed. Her smiles become less forced. Alex and J’onn and Winn and Lena and Miss Grant start to look less concerned. 

Of course, just as her feet feel certain underneath her, the universe has a way of pulling the rug away. 

As it always does in the case of the last daughter of Krypton. 

* * *

Intellectually, Kara knew that there were alternate hers in other universes. There could have even been a Kara on Earth-1 somewhere. Barry told her about Jay Garrick, she could have been named something else. 

So yes, intellectually Kara knew that there was a chance that she may see a familiar face. A familiar face with a different name and a different life attached to it, but one all the same. 

Still. It was something that she didn’t think about. 

She struggled and suffered and hid who she was, but eventually she made herself into something new. She made herself from Kara Zor-El into Kara Danvers. It was her life. She didn’t want to see if she could have done it worse or (even worse than worse) _better_. 

Kara should have, however, braced herself for the eventuality that she would have met someone that she knew on Earth-1. 

She just didn’t expect it to be _Barry_. 

* * *

Kara meets Doctor Bartholomew J. Allen on a day where the sky is an endless ocean of blue and the clouds drift lazily in the slightest of breezes. It’s the kind of day where clouds look how human children imagine then to feel, like big soft pillows. 

(The reality is that they are wet and Kara hates flying through them.) 

National City is still rebuilding, but the scarred facades of buildings look a lot better. The people start to laugh and smile more than they cast suspicious gazes 

On this day, Kara comes to LCorp to pick up Lena for lunch. There’s a place that makes _sushi burritos_. Kara is simultaneously horrified and curious. She wants to eat one of these monstrosities and then get mochi. Oh. Or boba. Maybe she’ll even pick up some for Winn and Alex before she heads to the DEO. 

(J’onn doesn’t like boba. Which is fine. More boba for the rest of them.) 

Even distracted by thoughts of food, Kara still freezes at the sound of his voice as she approaches her friend’s office. 

“I’ll have the prelims sent to you by the end of business on Wednesday, Lena.” 

It feels like Kara’s been doused in ice water like everything is too close together and too far apart. It’s a feeling that she had only felt once before as she stared at Astra before her as her enemy. 

Someone she thought dead breathes again. 

But it _couldn’t_ be Barry. Someone would have contacted her. Someone would- 

It clicks in an almost dizzying fashion. 

Not her Barry, but the Barry Allen of her Earth. Barry never looked for himself here. He looked for Caitlin and Cisco and Harrison Wells and STAR Labs, but never Barry Allen of Earth-38. 

Lena sees her through the open door. 

“Kara! You’re early.” 

Lena sounds happy, happier than she has been recently. It’s a lovely sound because Lena deserves every happiness and every kindness from a world that has been anything but to her. 

Kara forces herself to act normal because Lean doesn’t know about alternate Earths and lives unlived. 

“Well sushi burritos wait for no woman.” 

Lena laughs at that. She waves Kara inside. Kara, somehow, forces her feet through the cracked door. 

“Lucky for you, we were done. Oh! You have to meet him, Kara.” 

Kara makes herself turn in the direction that Lena points in. 

The Barry Allen of Earth-38 looks the same as the Barry Allen of Earth-1 at a quick glance. Same eyes, same mouth, same nose. 

After this quick glance, however, Kara sees the differences between the pair. 

His hair is a little longer. The sort of long that is less of a fashion statement and more of a statement of him forgetting to cut his hair. He’s pale, almost unnaturally white, and dressed in black and dark grey business clothes of high quality. A pair of thick rimmed glasses sit on his nose. 

“Kara, this is Doctor Bartholomew Allen. We went to MIT together. Barry, this is Kara Danvers. She’s a reporter at Catco.” 

His mouth quirks up slightly into the picture image of genial civility. He holds his hand out and Kara takes it. 

“A pleasure, Miss Danvers. Please don’t call me Bartholomew. Lena has always loved embarrassing me.” 

He drops her hand before his expression turns mischievous. 

“Of course, I can tell you some stories of underage geniuses at MIT should you like to know them.” 

Lena rolls her eyes. The mouth quirk on Barry morphs into a full-blown smirk. 

Kara swallows thickly before speaking. Internally, she scrambles to get her bearings for this situation. 

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” 

Lena rummages in the background, picking up her purse. 

“Barry’s going to head some of LCorp’s chemical projects.” 

The smirk deepens on Barry’s face. His hands slide easily into his pockets. 

“A wonderful opportunity which I am certain will have the fringe benefit of making Lex and Lillian have a collective aneurysm.” 

He stage-whispers to Kara, “They don’t like me much.” 

Lena snorts at that, even Kara has to hide her smile. 

Barry’s smirk turns into a smile that she has seen before. The one which lights up his entire face. 

“I’ll be seeing you, Lena. Kara, it was nice to meet you.” 

With that, Barry Allen of Earth-38 gracefully walks off. Kara watches him go. She tries to keep her breathing even and slow. 

Lena walks over to her. Concern flits across her face. 

“You okay?” 

Kara looks at Lena. It’s on the tip of her tongue again to tell her of Supergirl and alternate earths and Scarlet Speedsters gone too soon. To tell Lena why Rhea targeted her with a single-minded determination and why Supergirl always seems to save her in the nick of time. But it tumbles back down her throat again. 

She’s not ready to lose another friend so soon. 

Kara forces herself to smile. 

“Yeah. Sorry. He just looked like someone that I used to know.” 

* * *

  _After this meeting, however, Flamebird and Nightwing could not banish the sight of each other from their minds._

_Even though they could not touch, they still wished to learn about the other._

_So, individually, they both sought out Rao to ask._

_“Who is the woman made of fire and light?” asked the starry-eyed Nightwing._

_“Her name is Flamebird,” Rao said. “She is the one who wipes the slate clean and allows for progress to be made. Her light banishes the darkness of your birth.”_

_Nightwing, now gifted with her name, did not press further._

_“Who is the man made of darkness and starshine?” asked the flame-haired Flamebird._

_“His name is Nightwing,” Rao said. “He hunts down those which hide in the Dark and stands sentry in the shadows.”_

_Flamebird, now armed with his name, wished to know more._

_“Why can we not meet?”_

_“You are light. He is darkness. You cancel each other out.”_

_Flamebird, who wiped the slate clean to remake the world, frowned. She was not thrilled with the idea of Nightwing only living within the Darkness. So armed with this knowledge and her burning soul, she went to Vohc-the-Builder to ask a favor._

* * *

It’s easy enough to get Winn on the case of this Earth’s Barry Allen. 

Winn liked the Barry of Earth-1 and would have come with her to the memorial if he was not so needed in the rebuilding effort. As she tells him the story, his fingers are already flying across the keyboard.

Winn’s head bends in awkward angle, keeping eyes firmly forward while his mouth wraps around the boba straw. 

He sucks up some tapioca pearls and chews thoughtfully. 

“I never even thought to look him up here! Since he couldn’t find anything on his friends, I just assumed...” 

Kara rests her head on her arms on the console. 

“I think we all did.” 

But the search for Barry Allen’s past has to be delayed. Something comes up, as it always does.  

* * *

The mysterious shadow man from the Daxamite Invasion finally catches the DEO’s attention. It takes Winn about five minutes to identify him. 

Phantasm is a little-known villain of Superman’s. Although to call him a villain is not _entirely_ correct. He’s more like the woman in the cat suit in Gotham being chased across the Gothic architecture by the legendary man bat. Someone who prefers to cross the line between good and bad, comfortable in working with the shades of grey. 

Phantasm doesn’t have the reputation of Luthor or Zod. His powers aren’t as flashy as Reactron’s or Volocana’s. He sticks to the shadows and theft, prefers a bit of chaos to order. Although as the Daxamite’s invasion proved, he will kill should the situation call for it. Shadows nip at his heels and won’t even let X-Ray vision penetrate them. 

He’s been off the grid for about two years now. Disappeared in the darkness that he is so comfortable with. He has stolen money and valuables from Luthor and other titans of less than honorable industry before leaving. 

Now, he is back. He saves people from the Daxamites and then he robs Roulette blind. Roulette, apparently, has been smuggling illegal alien artifacts from long dead worlds. 

Kara loses him almost immediately. He’s leaving just as she, the DEO, and the police are conducting a raid. The huge diamonds Roulette wore around her neck spirited away by Phantasm, whose laughter echoes in the darkness. 

Now in her third year of heroing, Kara can admit that she doesn’t know everything. Asking for help, she has learned is not a weakness but a strength. 

She calls and ask Clark about his relocated villain. 

“He’s not a bad guy,” Clark says over Face Time when Kara calls. She can see Lois in the background. Her feet dangle off of the chair and a half in Clark’s apartment. 

Her smirk shows that she also agrees with Clark’s assessment.   

“Really?” 

“He just targets the bad guys. Legally he’s in the wrong. He’ll steal paintings and money, thumb his nose at them.” 

“And morally?” 

Clark shifts a bit and makes an iffy hand. 

Kara feels her eyebrows climb upward. 

“And what does that mean?” 

Here, her cousin gives a purely human sheepish smile and shrugs. 

“I really liked Robin Hood growing up?” 

Lois snorted in the background. 

“Clark.” 

“He doesn’t threaten anyone or try to take over the world. He just steals and stays in the shadows. He gives a good chunk of the money to charities. The only time I heard him killing anyone was with the Daxamites and that group of lizard people a few years back. But if you blame him for those deaths, then you have to blame everyone else who tried to protect their homes. The rest of them time? The worse he does is knock you out. Those constructs he makes are solid. I try to catch him because he’s breaking the law. But there’s only so much I can do. The darkness hides him too well. I have to admit, sometimes I wouldn’t mind having something like that.” 

Maybe there’s something in that she and Clark can relate to. Beings of the sun who crave the shadows to hide them. 

Or maybe Kara’s just feeling maudlin. 

“Well I won’t let him get away.” 

“Go for it. Although if you find him, tell him I want my Swiss Army Knife back.” 

Lois in the background snorts, “You’re such a nerd, Kansas.” 

“It was monogrammed with our emblem!” 

Kara just laughs

* * *

 _Vohc-the-Builder was not one to deny Flamebird anything when she appeared to him. One would like to think that he would resent her for all the things that she destroyed._

_But he could not._

_Flamebird gave him a blank slate. She gave him a chance to build and improve. How could he hate that?_

_Vohc would give her anything that she asked for._

_“There’s a being who lives in the Dark hunting those that hide from Rao’s light. His name is Nightwing.”_

_“And?”_

_“You’re the cleverest of us, Vohc. I would like to ask you to go see him and make sure he is not lonely. If anyone can figure out how to do this, then it is you.”_

* * *

Eventually, Winn puts together a file for her. The pair of them dither on whether or not to inform Alex and J’onn of this fact, of this Barry Allen. If the DEO would be curious of the alternate lives that could have been led by heroes of other Earths.

After debating briefly, Winn slips the file in both Alex and J’onn’s non-essential info. It’s interesting, but not life-threatening. A potential contact that could be made for the organization. 

He may not be a speedster, but a genius chemist is probably even better.

Kara reads the file with _The Wizard of Oz_ playing in the background. A glass of Riesling sits on her table. The sweetness of the wine counteracts the bitterness of the life experienced by this Barry Allen.

There is no man in lightning. There is no dead mother in the middle of living room. There is no father sent to prison. There is no Joe West to take Barry in and raise him. No Iris. No Cisco. No Caitlin. No Wells or Thawne. 

There is a drunk driver running a red light. There is a car with two loving parents obeying the traffic laws. There is a little boy asleep on the couch with cold, unaware of what has happened. There is a man, rightly convicted and placed in jail. There are two coffins lowered into the cold Earth as one, an orphaned boy between them both. 

He is passed through foster home after foster home. At first, it was just the nightmares that made him be dropped. Then it was the fact that he was a genius: a sharp keen intellect to be used. No one knew how to deal with him. Well there were the gambling addicts who used his brains to keep them in the red and cover their debts. But nothing lasts forever, eventually he moves on. 

There’s a boy who graduates high school at fourteen and goes to college. He spends the two years until his emancipation under the care of a professor. Perhaps it was a happy life there. By then, however, it could have been too little too late. He graduates college, then grad school, then gets a doctorate in chemistry at an obscenely young age. He goes to work at LexCorp before the lies of Lex Luthor unweave and his empire crashes under the weight of his delusional dreams. He leaves the organization suddenly and drops out of sight.

He has been off the radar until recently with a return to LCorp when Lena Luthor asks for him. The too pale young genius just smiles when asked why he disappeared and says that he needed a break. 

Perhaps this is the truth. Perhaps it is a lie.

Either way, reading the life story of this Barry Allen makes Kara miss the one she knew. 

Still the next time she sees him, Kara is polite and kind. They talk about the weather. Kara never mentions doppelgängers or speedsters or the that she knows about the tragedy of his life. He bids her a good day. She goes to meet Lena for lunch. 

People think she is a terrible liar. 

Perhaps Kara is just used to the world being her stage in other ways.

* * *

Supergirl and Phantasm officially meet when Maggie Sawyer has a gun pointed to her temple by a thief known as the Magpie. 

After the incident with Alex’s kidnapping, Kara has tried to make an effort to not interrupt the police doing their job. She waits to be invited into these cases along with the DEO. It’s hard, but she admits to having some issues relinquishing control. 

The Magpie was a case that Kara heard about vaguely. He’s a thief with a similar schtick to the cat burglar that works out of Gotham. Only instead of stealing things connected to cats, he steals things connected to birds. 

Because sure. Why not birds? 

Kara doesn’t profile them. She’s not going to examine this guy’s bird thing. For all she knows, he just likes shiny stuff.

Maggie and the NCPD had been tracking down this guy since he made National City his new “nest”.  It meant a lot of sleepless nights and near misses, but Kara stays true to course. It helps that other things distract her. 

But then she (by she, Kara means the DEO) gets a call from the Police Commissioner. Magpie has Maggie, gun to her head, at the National City Natural History Museum. Frankly, they could give a damn about procedure if Kara can go and save her. 

Kara’s already in the air before the request finishes coming out of the man’s mouth.

In the time after Mon-El left… 

Well it was time well spent learning a bit of finesse. Kara hovers above the museum and glances in with her X-Ray vision. She can see Maggie and Magpie together. 

There is also something else, an absence of an image, just black. 

Phantasm. 

Kara feels her stomach clench. Perhaps he wasn’t as morally right-minded as Clark liked to think. Still she is not going in guns blazing. She is going to take her time.

Eventually she sneaks her way in, floating so her feet don’t touch the ground. 

Magipie and Maggie are talking. Maggie trying to calm him down. 

It doesn’t seem to be working on the twitchy man. 

“You don’t have to do this.” 

“Shut up! I’m gettin’ out of here.” 

Kara presses herself against the wall. 

“Well,” said a voice with reverb to disguise it, “that’s rather cliché don’t you think?” 

Magpie whirls around with his gun pointed at the shadows which convalesce into the form of a tall hooded figure. Magpie pales at the form. Kara moves closer, wanting to see more and wanting to get the opening to grab Maggie. 

Magpie audibly swallows. He takes a step back with his hands clutching Maggie. 

“Phantasm.”

At the fear in Magpie’s voice, those bone white fingers twitched.

“Magpie. You’re in my city. You have a cop being held at gunpoint. Presumably, Supergirl is coming to reign down her deserved fury upon you. She’s a bit fond of this detective. So you pissed of her and me and the entirety of the NCPD. Good job.” 

“You gotta help me.” 

The disdain in Phantasm’s voice rings clearly. 

“I don’t _gotta_ do anything. In fact, Catwoman sends her regards. She wishes she could have been the cat that got the Magpie, but so it goes. Let go of the detective.” 

“Or what?” 

“Or this.” 

The fingers twitch again and Magpie’s shadow rises up, looking as solid as a person. Magpie turns, letting go of Maggie, and it gives Kara the opening to snatch her.

In the same moment, Magpie’s shadow pistol whips him. He crumbles to the ground. 

It’s over in barely a blink of an eye. 

Kara is more focused on her sister’s fiancée. 

“Are you okay, Maggie?” 

A nod and a smile, “Totally fine. I just wish I had…” 

At that, a pair of black handcuffs forms in front of her. 

“It should be enough to hold him until you get real handcuffs from your compatriots, Detective Sawyer.” 

Maggie and Kara both turn to look at Phantasm. His hands are clapped in front of him, the only visible part of his body. Kara finds her voice first. 

“Thank you for the help.”

Phantasm huffs a laugh as he nudges the unconscious Magpie with his foot. 

“Well he gives thieves a bad name. Besides, he’s a little weasel and I’ve been itching to do something about him tomorrow. As I’m sure your cousin told you, I squeak certain lines.” 

“He didn’t quite phrase it like that.” 

“Too polite by half. Well ladies my work here is done. I’ll bid you adieu.” 

With that, he turns his cape and melts into the shadow. Only the handcuffs and the unconscious Magpie remain, otherwise it would have been like he was a ghost. 

Kara groans as a realization hits her. Maggie turns in concern. 

“What?” 

“I forgot to ask about my cousin’s Swiss Army Knife.” 

* * *

 _At the request of Flamebird, Vohc-the-Builder became the first real friend that Nightwing ever had. The cleverest of Rao’s creations, Vohc built a suit which allowed him to step inside of the Darkness where Nightwing resided._

_“Greetings!” The many-eyed Vohc called to the starry-eyed Nightwing. “I am Vohc known as the Builder.”_

_“Greetings, Vohc. I am Nightwing. What brings you to this realm?”_

_“I come at the behest of Flamebird for she cannot enter this realm.”_

_“And what does she wish?”_

_“She wishes for us to be friends, if you would like. She does not like the idea of you here alone with those that hide from Rao’s light.”_

_Nightwing felt something. The same strange feeling that drew him to this Flamebird in the first place. The fact that she wished to give him company when she could not be there…_

_Nightwing looked into Vohc’s bright eyes._

_“I never had a friend before. I am afraid that I do not know how to have one.”_

_Vohc’s eyes crinkled into a smile as his many arms reached out to him._

_“I am a builder, Nightwing. We shall build this together.”_

* * *

 In Kara’s life, Doctor Barry Allen is a ghost. He flits on the edge of her vision. A man with the face of a dead man that she once knew. Usually, she sees him at LCorp when she goes to visit Lena. 

(And if Lena notices Kara’s awkwardness around Barry, then she doesn’t say anything.) 

The differences between this Barry and the Barry slowly make themselves apparent. Time marches on. Incidental meetings pile up these differences, slowly twist them into two separate people. She’s not sure what to call this: an exorcism or what. It does, however, make him less of a ghost to her. 

She calls him Doctor Allen. He calls her Miss Danvers. It becomes something of a dance for them. He’s self-contained in a way that makes Kara long for home. For red skies and formal tongues, the way you had to watch people to understand them. It was like a dance whose steps that Kara half-remembers now. Her feet grow more and more sure of it the more she talks with him. 

Sometimes she aches for Krypton, even though it is a place of mistakes that come to light with the population dead. It was still her home. 

Kara does not dwell on these things long. If she does, then she fears that rage that roils underneath her skin will eat her alive. She smiles and speaks in half-truths and does not think about how Doctor Allen’s gaze has grown more intent. 

Kara shifts her focus elsewhere to her duties as Supergirl and learning her trade and whatever needs her attention.

In the corner of her, there flits a half-ghost. It leaves Kara more uncertain of what to do in regard to him.

* * *

In the interim between Doctor Allen and Phantasm, Kara goes back down the rabbit hole to Earth-1.  There’s another problem that needs her help and she is happy to give it. 

She likes to think that Barry wasn’t her only friend on that Earth. 

Kara watches Wally during it, who is coming into his own as the Flash. His costume is a lighter crimson than Barry’s. He has elements of Kid Flash costume worked in, but he seems to make the role his own. 

Kara misses Barry though. It’s an ache that will probably always be there when she comes to Earth-1. They had a synchronicity in their fighting: fun and tandem. She pushes the idea aside and finds herself becoming Oliver Queen’s heroic partner for this. 

Perhaps this is the legacy that Barry Allen leaves, bridging the gap between people. 

Eventually, the bad guys are defeated. The day is saved. The Legends leave in their spaceship, mumbling something about fixing time. Kara keeps her tongue to herself about it, when they gave Barry such shit last year for the same thing. She can see Iris doing the same in the way she purses her lips before leaving with her father and brother.

(Kara tries not to feel guilty for not telling Iris about the Barry of her Earth. But she thinks it would do more harm than good. One day, maybe, she will tell Iris but not today.)  

Oliver Queen takes her out to a bar for a drink. It’s a small place, crowded but also lowkey.

“Barry and I usually do this. I was going to ask Sara to come but…” 

He pauses. 

“There’s a lot of baggage there.” 

Kara looks down at her glass, but she takes a sip. 

“This doesn’t do anything for me.” 

Oliver laughs a little bit. 

“It didn’t do anything for Barry either, but still I hope the thought counts.” 

“It does.” 

The two of them sit together. Kara never really handled this whole stoic silence thing very well. Neither did Clark, but he still does it well enough to handle his man bat friend in Gotham. 

Either way, the words fall from her mouth. 

“Wally’s doing well in the role.” 

Oliver drains his glass and contemplates it. 

“Yeah, he is. Barry would have been proud of him. He probably knew he could do it.” 

Oliver taps his glass for a refill. The bartender pours him two more fingers. 

“He always believed that I was so much better than I really was.” 

Kara smiles at that. She doesn’t know what comes over her, but there’s a deep need in her telling someone of Earth-38’s Barry Allen. Oliver wears his loss like an armor and embraces it like an old friend. 

She turns her focus on her mostly full glass. 

“I met…the Barry Allen of my Earth.” 

Oliver’s gaze is eagle sharp. 

“Really?” 

“He works with my friend Lena. We talk sometimes. He’s…not our Barry. But he’s a Barry. It’s…” 

Oliver nods once. 

“Baggage.” 

Kara laughs a little. 

“Exactly.” 

The two of them sit in a comfortable sort of silence for a moment. Kara takes another drink from her glass. 

“Please don’t tell anyone. I don’t know what it would do to Iris.” 

Oliver nods. 

“I won’t. I don’t know what good it will do to tell them anyway. Thank you for telling me.” 

“I figured you could handle it.” 

Oliver smirks a little at that and turns back to his drink. 

When she leaves, he gives her a voluntary hug. 

“Don’t be a stranger, Supergirl.” 

Kara smiles at him and turns her gaze to the stars of Earth-1. For a wild moment, she wonders if there is a Krypton in that sky. A thriving and living Krypton with her family alive, with her as a parent possibly in middle-age, with Kal and his parents... 

Another life, another her, a person who she could have been. 

She wants to ask, wants to know, but swallows the question. 

Some stones are better left unturned. 

She opens the portal and steps through. 

* * *

After her conversation with Oliver, Kara makes her decision. If this Barry Allen of her Earth was going to be a presence in her life, then he could not haunt her. She cannot keep him in this limbo state. 

She has enough ghosts to live with; she does not need this one as well. 

With this thought in mind, Kara decides on a course of action. She will befriend him and not transfer the baggage of a life he never lived upon him. They were half there, but Kara could not do things by half any longer. 

She cannot hide from this 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asks Alex when Kara informs her of this. 

Kara considers her sister from where she is floating upside down. Alex was spending the night at her place. After the forgotten Earth Birthday, the pair of the instituted a monthly Danvers Sisters Night. 

Essentially, it falls once a month. No DEO. No Supergirl. No shop talk. No significant others allowed. It consists of just them, junk food, terrible Asylum movies, and obnoxiously bright nail polish to paint their toenails with. 

“When are my ideas ever good? Besides isn’t this talking shop?” 

“Borderline,” Alex decides as she holds up Kara’s plate. Kara hums and takes a bite of her pizza from her floating position. “I still want to know though.” 

Kara chews her pizza thoughtfully and stares at her neon green colored toes. Deflection will not work in this instance. It rarely does with her sister, but Kara will give it the old college try now and then. 

“I can’t avoid him, Alex. I can’t keep living with him in halves as I have been. Lena clearly wants to know why I act so weird around him. They’re really good friends. He’s one of her favorite employees who is not evil. I need to be friendly, legitimately.” 

Kara sighs. She glances at the lightening emblem tucked away, a symbol of friends gone but not forgotten.

“This is the Barry that I know now. The other one isn’t coming back.” 

Alex leans back into the couch. 

“Alternate universes are such a mess.” 

Kara laughs. “It was weird enough with the Music Meister’s fantasy. It’s even weirder with the reality of it all.” 

Alex squints her eyes and nods thoughtfully. She twists the engagement ring on her finger. 

“Are you coming to my suit fitting?” 

Kara lets out a breath at the change in topic. 

“A Draaga couldn’t keep me away.”

* * *

 _Vohc-the-Builder began to visit Nightwing with regularity. Even though under a request from Flamebird, the pair become friends in their own right._

_Often Vohc would bring Nightwing trinkets that he had made for him, secreted away before Flamebird could destroy them. Nightwing would tell Vohc stories, weaving the tales of battles in the shadows._

_Vohc felt his heart hurting over the fact that Nightwing was essentially trapped within the Darkness._

_Vohc-the-Builder with his bright eyes, many arms and clever fingers decided to build something for his friend so that he may leave the Dark without consequence._

* * *

Kara implements her plan to get to know this Barry Allen better the only way she knows how: food. 

Kara adores food. Earth, in her opinion, has the most variety of any planet she has visited. It was all delicious and amazing. Food was just something to break down walls. She enjoyed the idea of the breaking of bread around a table and sharing a meal. 

Logically, it was the best way to start a new friendship with a man who had a dead man’s face. 

Lena and Kara go for lunch, at least, once a week. Even though the Luthor name is tarnished in a level of batshit crazy, Lena still has a lot of goodwill. Goodwill apparently translates into lots of restaurants. 

Kara times out her plan of attack right. She even makes sure that Barry is with Lena in her office when she arrives with a quick listen of super hearing. 

“Kara!” 

Lena’s voice sounds please and airy, like she has no troubles in the world. 

“Hey Lena, Doctor Allen.” 

“Miss Danvers, I really do think it’s time you called me Barry.” 

Kara smiles. 

“Then it’s Kara, Barry.” 

She pauses and takes a deep breath. 

“Would you like to join Lena and I for lunch?” 

“Oh yes! Come on, Barry. You need to get out of your lab.” 

Barry snorts indelicately. 

“You’re one to talk.” 

Lena rolls her eyes and gives his sleeve a tug. His mouth tips upward into a half smile. 

“But I won’t say no to some food.”

Kara mentally congratulates herself on plan well-executed. If only the rest of her life went so easily, then she would be in business.

* * *

It’s amazing, in Kara’s opinion, at how friendships can form with just a little work. On Krypton, it was less friendships and more of forming advantageous alliances.

She wonders if General Zod ever mentioned to Clark that their families almost entered one, back when General Zod was Dru-Zod, a dear friend of her Aunt Astra. An alliance made through betrothal between her and Zod’s son Lor. Lor-Zod was a few years older than her, but with a sort of sadness about him. 

(Granted that sadness could have just been being Zod’s son and living up to his expectations.) 

Sometimes she wonders about how her life would have gone on Krypton. Would she have married Lor-Zod? Would they have had a child? Would they love each other? Or would they be merely fond of each other? Or would they just keep up appearances? 

Such bonds were tricky. Emotions were something that her people liked to pretend that they didn’t have. 

But Kara always remained fascinated at how easily friendships can be formed. At how necessary they are to a content existence when maintained. 

Soon she and Doctor Barry Allen are enjoying each other’s company. They argue about music or movies or books. He texts her sometimes. Not as often as Winn or Lena or Alex, but with enough of frequency to make it a normal occurrence. 

She sees him as Barry, who likes his coffee black but his tea sweet and milky. His preferred drink being a scotch and soda with one ice. He loves, loves, loves spicy food but won’t go to the nth degree with his spice obsession (“I wanna enjoy the burn, not set my mouth on fire”). He names his projects silly things like _Sleepy Time Gas_ and loves playing _Legend of Zelda_ when he gets a minute. He sings but cannot tap dance. 

Those differences ground him to Kara, make him hers. Maybe he’s not a super friend, but he’s still a friend all the same.

Her friend. 

* * *

 _Vohc-the-Builder was known the world over for his innovation and cleverness. If anyone could help the starry-eyed Nightwing step onto the red sands of Krypton, then it would be him._

_Flamebird wiped the slate clean again with her destructive touch. While Vohc rebuilt the world, he also used his great mind to construct a device for Nightwing to walk the world he protected. Eventually, through his cleverness and sleepless nights, he constructed a cloak._

_Having Nightwing gather some samples of the Dark while mixing in the light of Rao, Vohc constructed that which will allow Nightwing to walk amongst them all._

_He presented it to his friend. The starry-eyed Nightwing donned the cloak under the pleased gaze of Vohc’s vacuous eyes and his many arms reaching out to his friend._

_“Come, my friend, let me take you out into the day.”_

_With Vohc by his side, Nightwing stepped out into the light._

* * *

In the months following the first real tangible confirmation of Phantasm, Kara feels like she has been chasing a ghost. (More often then she deals with her own ghosts anyway.) Due to his abilities and his low profile, they don’t realize that most of his jobs are done until they are committed. 

Even in his rare instances of true heroism, he steps in when the attention of the NCPD and the DEO are elsewhere. He disappears shortly after the disaster of the week is averted, melting into the shadows like he was never there to begin with. 

It’s frustrating. It leaves Kara and others surrounding her feeling like the mouse who wandered into a litter of cats. Still whenever a shadow moves through the night, she tries to follow his trail. 

But, as Clark said, he’s chaos. Chaos can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation. 

Saving Maggie aside, Kara wanted to know for herself if Phantasm was the good or bad kind of chaos.

* * *

Kara officially has a talk with Phantasm for the first time on a Wednesday night. Her legs are dangling off the edge of the Catco building. A box of donuts from a very grateful bakery owner are next to her, devoured with gusto as she tries to stargaze past the light pollution. 

Behind her Kara heard a strange sound, like silk over gravel. She liked the salted toffee glaze from her fingers and looks over her shoulder. 

Phantasm stands behind her. His hood pulled low over his face. 

“Supergirl.” 

“Phantasm.” 

She pauses, uncertain of how to deal with a sudden appearance of an anti-villain (anti-hero?) on the rooftop. 

Still, her good manners and gratefulness at him helping Maggie wins out. She pushes her box of donuts toward him. 

“Want one? Their dark chocolate frosted salted caramel popcorn donut is amazing.” 

In a blink, Phantasm rises up in the shadows next to her. One of his bone white hands reaches out and takes the donut for his own. It quickly disappears under the hood in huge bites yet pleased bites. 

“Is there a particular reason you sought me out, Phantasm?” 

“Can’t a follow powered individual come and say hello?” 

“Really?” 

The person underneath the hood shifts uncertainly. Kara waits. National City is quiet tonight. She can take her time with this. 

“I have information that, in good conscience, I could not sit on for the time being.” 

Kara nods. 

“I’m listening.” 

“There’s a huge ring springing up in the underground. Trade in alien artifacts. Some Daxamite tech that escaped the DEO’s notice in the aftermath of the invasion, a lot more unknown quantities. Injections that were developed by Lex Luthor in his pre-prison days to unlock powers in people. Trafficking of people, both human and other. Lots of fingers attached to one hand.” 

“Roulette?” 

Phantasm snorts and steals another donut (peach cobbler with a white chocolate drizzle). 

“Roulette and her tacky dragon tattoo wishes she was this woman. The only name I got was Blacksmith. I only caught wind of her operation a few weeks ago when one of my informants disappeared. Most people aren’t well guarded against me. Even on the brightest day, there’s still a shadow in somewhere for me to slither through.” 

“Unsettling and impressive.” 

“Does make my hypothetical thieving easier. Made it easier to track down one of her lieutenants. I did my thing with a flash drive and…” 

He produces said flash drive. After a moment of internal deliberation, Kara pockets it. 

“I figure since you work with people who have actual authority that it would help.” 

“Far-sighted of you.” 

“I’m well aware of my twisted code of ethics and morality.” 

“My cousin wants his Swiss Army Knife back.”

“Your cousin’s a nerd.”

Kara’s still giggling when she notices that Phantasm and a s’mores donut has vanished into the night. 

* * *

Flash drive safely ensconced in a hidden pocket, Kara flies it and the remaining donuts to the DEO. J’onn, naturally, wants every precaution in place. While he won’t turn his nose up at Phantasm’s help, he also has a healthy sense of pragmatism about dealing with people who straddle the line. 

(Only J’onn, Kara reflects, can sound so serious while eating what the menu called a Fairy Princess Special.) 

Still he is perturbed enough about this Blacksmith that he’s willing to take any help he can get. 

“We’ve heard chatter on and off, but we never thought it was one person.” 

Alex looks from her spot against the doorframe. She watches carefully as Winn loads the drive onto a computer not connected to their mainframe and network. 

“And you think it’s legit? Not Phantasm trying to clear the way?” 

Winn makes a successful noise about his cinnamon bun twist. He chews and answers Alex’s question. 

“Not in his wheelhouse. Besides the stuff on here isn’t enough remotely on the same planet as him. We have shell companies within shell companies. Banks running through banks. It’s definitely an impressive cesspit of crime. This Blacksmith is very good at being very bad. I’d say Phantasm is on our side on this.” 

Alex and J’onn share a look. 

Kara sighs and pushes back her hair. 

“I don’t think he’s clearing out the competition. I think he just wants to clear house. Granted I’ve only really had one proper conversation with the guy. But I’m with Winn this isn’t his game. Besides he did save Maggie.” 

Alex sighs in the way that Kara knows she’s going to capitulate. 

“Yeah. He did.” 

“I still don’t like this,” J’onn said. “But we need to deal with this Blacksmith.” 

“So the plan?” 

J’onn raises an eyebrow as he stares at the Blacksmith’s logo on the screen (a hammer striking an anvil). 

“Take her down. Of course.” 

* * *

 _Nightwing did not venture into the light often. He had duties to attend to even as Rao’s order swept through all things. The Darkness was tamed with starlight. Innovation and invention were encouraged._

_Still though, there was those evil things who slithered into the Dark. There Nightwing gave them swift judgement._

_On the days when all was quiet in his realm, however, Nightwing would done the cloak that Vohc had made for him. He would take those steps into the sun._

_These days were the days that shadowed Nightwing would develop a shadow of his own._

_Flamebird would carefully trace his steps without destroying the imprints made by his feet. She watched as the starry-eyed Nightwing would walk amongst the sands. During these times, the fierce Flamebird would catalogue every smile and laugh as if they were something truly precious._

_All the while, she would feel this continuous pull toward him._

_“Rao,” she beseeched. “I do not know what I feel.”_

_Rao touched the flame-haired Flamebird, sculpted from magma to ease his loneliest. She will ever be his first and best creation._

_“Flamebird, my clean slate, you are in love.”_

* * *

The first time Kara realizes that her feelings for Barry were more than just friends sort of feelings was a perfectly ordinary Thursday. It was an average temperature for the time of year. There was an average amount of clouds in the sky. Kara had a normal day at work with normal interludes to help stop crime. She, Lena, and Barry had their normal Thursday lunch plan. 

Due to the fact that this day, in particular, was so average the shock of this realization should not have blindsided Kara.

Oh but blindside her it did. She learned a long time ago that she didn’t have ordinary days anymore. 

Lena was still in a meeting with her biotech division head when Kara arrived. 

“She should be done in half an hour, Miss Danvers,” Lena’s new assistant promised. “Doctor Allen is available if you want to wait with him though.” 

When Kara last left Barry, they were locked in the argument of the better adaptation of _Jane Eyre_. Kara had come up with new reasons as to why the classic one was the best. 

With this in mind, Kara walks down the rapidly familiar hallways that lead her to Barry’s office. The soundproofing in LCorp is only second to the DEO, so she doesn’t hear Barry until she gets close to the door.

“ _You make me weep_ ,” Barry croons. “ _I wanna die. Just when you said we trrrryyyy_.”

Kara slows her steps in response. In theory, she knew that Barry sings. Lena mentioned that he would often bust out a song during lab time. Music helps him think. They naturally had talked about music. 

His voice is a little rougher than her Barry’s, less trained. But there is something charming in it. 

Through the crack in his door, Kara sees Barry curled up on the chair and a half that he keeps in his office. Long limbs stretched out easily with his fringe falling into his eyes. Paperwork rested on his knee as his pen dances in between his fingers. 

“ _It won’t be long, yeah. Til your alone but your lover…oh he hasn’t come home.”_  

Barry throws his head back at that, revealing the long and pale line of his throat. His eyelashes stood stark against his cheeks. 

Kara’s heart flutters at the sight like a bird taking wing for the first time. Her hand spasms a bit oddly. 

The thought enters into her head unbidden that Barry was very handsome. He was handsome, smart, funny, passionate, and…complicated in a good way. With his sly smile and quick wit, his hair falling into his eyes as he looks at her across the table. 

He is Barry. 

He is _her_ Barry. 

Suddenly, Kara realizes how much trouble she is in.

Because she likes Barry Allen.

Things, as they often do after earth-shattering realizations, get complicated.

* * *

After the realization that she was in love with Barry Allen, Kara attempts to distance herself from him. Emotions like that, big and life-changing, have always left her ill at ease and ready to run. For all that emotions are her greatest strength, they also have consequences. 

Consequences that she isn’t ready to deal with yet. 

The beacon from Earth-1 didn’t help much either. Because that brings up new and even more complicated feelings. 

Still they are Kara’s friends and she has obligations to them. 

It’s weird to say the least. Her distraction is noticed and the fact she is subconsciously avoiding interaction with Iris. She focuses on the task at hand, but when others still glance at her in concern. Even Rory (reunited with his friend Snart) gruffly asks, “You okay, Skirt?” 

Kara hands flutter for a moment. She settles on, “Boy problems.” 

Rory grunts, “Len’s better with that stuff. He’s a big brother. But if you need me to light the fucker up, then let me know.” 

Kara pauses and decides to take a gesture for which it was offered. 

“Thanks Mick. That means a lot.”

“You need to call more, Skirt.” 

He lumbers off and Kara stares after him. 

Once the crisis of the moment is dealt, another party breaks out. A bit livelier than the last, the first party after Barry’s becoming one with the Speed Force.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Iris says from behind her. She has a mixed drink in hand and straight back. It has become clearer now than previously that Iris has stepped up to the mantle of the Flash. Wally wears the suit, but she provides the leadership. 

Kara looks at Iris with her careful gaze and the ring on still on her left finger. Guilt washes over her for being attracted to her Barry Allen. 

“I met my Earth’s version of Barry,” she vomits out. “He’s friends with my friend Lena. And I guess we became friends and he’s…different from Barry but he’s my Barry. And I think he’s cute and I feel so guilty.” 

Iris stares at Kara for a beat before draining her drink in a long easy swallow. She places the glass down. 

“Let’s take a walk.” 

Kara tries not to feel nervous at the prospect. 

* * *

The breeze ruffles Kara’s ponytail as she and Iris step out into the night air. Kara turns her face up to the sky. Her eyes instinctively look for her home star system.

“Whenever I’m on this Earth, I wonder about Krypton. Does it live here? Do I live with a husband and children? Am I happy there in this other life? Or did I just die with my planet? It’s hard to tell. On my Earth, we can see Krypton as well.” 

Kara looks down at her shoes. 

“Because of the light?” asks Iris. “I had a very intense astronomy phase as a kid.” 

“Yeah. I try avoiding looking directly at it. Every time I see it on my Earth…it’s just a reminder. And here? I just wonder.” 

“Alternate universes are a tricky business,” Iris says after an uncertain moment. “I don’t think I’ll ever really get use to them.” 

“I’m…” 

Iris grabs Kara’s hand and gives it a squeeze. Their eyes meet. 

“Don’t apologize, Kara. There’s nothing to apologize for.” 

“Isn’t there? I feel so guilty.” 

Iris shrugs and pulls her jacket tighter. 

“He’s not my Barry, Kara. If I meet him, then he’ll be a stranger with Barry’s face. He lived a different life than my Barry, had different experiences. To think of him otherwise, it would be a disservice to Barry’s memory.” 

Kara sighs. 

“It’s just…complicated.” 

“Life is rarely easy, but yeah ours do seem to be more complicated than normal. Look if you want my blessing, Kara, then you have it. But I think that you were hoping that I wasn’t going to give it.” 

Iris looks over at her. 

“Don’t be scared of love, Kara. It’s what makes us strong.” 

She reaches down and catches Kara’s hand with her own. 

The two of them stand like that, holding hands like little girls, under the vast canopy of stars with the Earth turning underneath their feet. 

* * *

 _The realization of love did not change this impasse that Flamebird and Nightwing felt in regard to each other. They still could not touch. Even a fascination could not be given life without something physical to ground them both._

_It was tempestuous Flamebird who broke this stalemate. Her being wreathed in the fires that created her and renewed the world._

_“Nightwing,” she called into the Void where he lived. Her light on the threshold stood like a beacon unto him._

_Nightwing could only come. The cloak shielding him the best it could._

_“Flamebird,” he greeted._

_Flamebird looked at him with wreathed in the blackest of the Darkness and with the stars of Rao’s blood in his eyes._

_“I was wondering if you would like to join me on a walk.”_

_“A walk?”_

_“Vohc has been building again. He comes up with some truly wondrous things. I almost feel bad to burn them, but it is my duty.”_

_The flame-haired Flamebird glanced up at Nightwing who smiled from his shadows._

_“I would very much like to join you for a walk, Flamebird.”_

_Together, the pair stepped from the Darkness and onto the sands of Krypton. They kept close without fully touching each other, but the air around them crackled with promise._

_It is in this promise where their own destruction lies._

* * *

Kara cannot keep Barry at an impasse. Still even with Iris’ words ringing in her ears, she kept her distance. Love, the romantic sort, has never worked out in the end for her. She’s not ready to be hurt again.

Her track record with relationships seems to end in pain. A broken foot for her junior prom date, being dumped for the ocean by her college boyfriend (“I love you, Kara. I just love the sea more.”) made up those first blush attempts at love.

James and she are still, nominally, friends. But there’s something vast between them. It’s hard for them to cross and attempts are sparse between. She only sees him at work, even then since Miss Grant’s return, it’s barely. 

Mon-El was…complicated.

The pain of his departure has lessened enough for her to look at it with a critical eye. There was passion, perhaps, but their love was immature. The first time either of them really let themselves feel something deeper. Perhaps they would have remaind together, perhaps they wouldn’t have. 

Now, she has a whole new set of complicated feelings. Lena’s latest text is concerned, asking if she and Barry had had a fight of some kind. 

Barry’s concern is a text message, “ _Are you okay?.”_ Kara doesn’t quite know what to do with that sentiment. 

Instead, she turns focus onto the Blacksmith who opens new branches of her operations as fast as the DEO can close them. The symbol of the hammer striking the anvil starts to haunt her dreams in addition to her waking life. It reminds her of a classical mythology course she took in college and the myth of Hercules and the Hydra.

“Cauterize the stump…”

“What was that?”

Kara looks up and into Alex’s concerned gaze.

“Just thinking. It feels like we’re doing nothing. Maybe we need to go to this Blacksmith person directly.” 

“Which would be good if we had any idea of how to get an in. We need to find her as well.” 

Kara leans back and leads her head fall gently against the console. 

It’s Winn who says what they all are subconsciously thinking. 

“Why not ask Phantasm for help? Wherever this Blacksmith is…it has to have a shadow for him to slip in from right?” 

Everyone shares a look at that. 

“We need to find him first.” 

“That’s the crux of the problem,” J’onn says. “How do you find someone when they don’t want to be found?” 

No one really has an answer for that.

* * *

It takes two weeks of careful tracking for Kara to find Phantasm. She throws herself into the work, sends apologizes and excuses to Lena and Barry both, promises to come to the LCorp ball in a few weeks’ time. 

Still Kara has kept her eyes peeled, looking for spaces of shadow that even her X-ray vision cannot penetrate. Winn, in desperation and Monster-fueled genius, cobbled together a device that tracks the energy signature that Phantasm puts off. 

“It goes ding when there’s stuff,” explained Winn before starting off to the barracks where he promptly crashes for ten hours. 

Luckily, it’s dinging at the moment Kara flies over the planetarium. There on the dome is Phantasm with his hooded head pointed up at the night sky. 

She lands softly next to him. 

“Phantasm.” 

“Supergirl. It’s a lovely night for a fly.” 

Kara sits down and crosses her legs. A soft breeze ruffles her hair and kisses the edges of Phantasm’s hood. 

“I do prefer the clear skies to the cloudy ones.”

“A sentiment for the ages,” agrees Phantasm. 

“I need your help with the Blacksmith.” 

“She does seem to like causing trouble. I don’t like how she’s been ramping up production.” 

“We need to cut her off at the head. With her gone then maybe…” 

“Maybe there will be enough infighting for you and your cohorts to swoop in and clean-up the rest of the operation. Not a bad plan. Question is do your cohorts trust me?” 

“They trust me and my judgement. Despite you liking to be on the wrong side of the law at times, I do think that you want the Blacksmith gone just as much as we do.” 

Phantasm sighs. 

“You’re not wrong.” 

“Then work with us.” 

She holds out her hand. 

Phantasm’s eternally shrouded face tips up at her. He looks down at her outstretched fingers before reaching out and taking them with his bone white ones

“Okay.” 

Kara beams.

* * *

Eventually, Lena breaks the stalemate that Kara has been having with Barry. 

“You’ve been avoiding Barry lately,” she accuses with Kara cornered in a wall of tailors. Her dress for the LCorp Charity Ball (in conjunction with Catco Worldwide Media) is a mess of delicate fabric and pins. 

“Have I?” 

“Playing dumb doesn’t suit you, Kara,” Lena says as she taps at her phone.

“It’s complicated.” 

“He seems to think that he’s done something wrong.” 

“He didn’t. I made it complicated. In my head. And I don’t…”

She trails off, hoping Lena didn’t catch it.

Lena, however, is one of the smartest women in the world. Of course she heard.

“Ah.” 

“Ah?” 

“You like Barry.” 

Kara’s traitorous cheeks color at the pronouncement. Lena looks like the cat who got the cream. 

“Lena please. This isn’t high school.” 

“It’s a little bit of high school when you’re avoiding him.” 

“My last boyfriend shot himself into space and his mother tried to take over the world. I’m a little gun shy.”

Lena nods, “Point.” 

Kara sighs and tries not to fidget. 

“I just don’t do well with romance.”

Lena laughs, but not unkindly. Her eyes gaze off to some distant point for a long moment.

“No one does, Kara. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Just let it go naturally. Whether it lead to a relationship or just staying friends, better to have someone by your side then not at all.” 

Lena makes a pretty good point of her own. In the end, Kara has another decision to make and she makes it. 

Kara texts Barry an apology that night. Because she does miss him: his sharp eyes and his brilliant mind and his wry sense of humor. Whatever feelings she has for him, conflicting and scary as they were, she misses her friend more.  

“ _Sorry I’ve been weird lately. It’s just that you remind me of a friend who died. And it just…hit me._ ” 

Close enough to a sort of truth. 

“ _Better now?_ ” 

“ _Enough to make you try waffle pops with me and laugh as you complain about hipsters_.” 

It’s a start. 

* * *

 _Flamebird and Nightwing soon were not seen without the other._

_For the most part, this odd union was welcomed with opened arms. It was clear that Flamebird and Nightwing completed each other in ways the others could barely understand._

_The union was, however, also looked upon with by jealous eyes._

_Vohc-the-Builder felt forgotten by his friends._

_Lonely and without those who he loved, Vohc tried to communicate the only way he knew how._

_He built._

_The monument to Flamebird and Nightwing was stunning. The truest work of art that Krypton has ever known. It was mathematically perfect, aesthetically pleasing, and the truest expression of beauty._

_Those who saw it? Wept from the beauty of it._

_Flamebird and Nightwing were struck speechless by it._

_All the many armed Vohc asked in return was that this be the thing that Flamebird never destroys, to go against her purpose. That this be a monument to them both._

_But the world was becoming cluttered again. Flamebird’s cleansing was needed to renew it. Nothing can remain forever. This is the lesson that she must teach._

_While the monument was truly something to behold, she could not promise this._

_As the creation burned, something inside Vohc broke and could never be rebuilt._

* * *

This is how the end begins. Their headway with Blacksmith hits a very large wall. Phantasm searches from the shadows. Kara searches from the skies. The DEO and the NCPD Science Police split the difference and cover the rest. 

They should have let her come to them. 

Because, in a fashion, that’s precisely what the Blacksmith does.

Back when Lex Luthor wore the veneer of civility and sanity like a well-fitted, the Lex Corp Charity Ball was **_the_** event of the season. Bigger than the Met Ball and the Oscars, everyone who was everyone was there. It brought millions for various charitable organizations (with, apparently, a cut going to Lex’s own enterprises).

After his arrest, the ball was well…ended. No one wanted their name associated with Lex Luthor’s.

Thanks to Lena’s tireless work, however, the LCorp Charity Ball (in conjunction with Catco Worldwide Media) looked to be bigger than previous years. Lex Luthor’s name was mud, but LCorp was shiny and redeemed in the eyes of the people. Lena was a woman on the rise. 

The year’s theme was Myth, Masquerade, and Magic. Rather than hit the nail on the head with a phoenix inspired dress, Lena Luthor stands resplendent in dark green and flowers, a nymph brought to life. Her mask was down, delicate roses and green vines working up the stick. 

Kara, however, was the phoenix (or that’s what she said anyway). Her hands fidget in the ball gown of orange and red silk to invoke fire. Her hair was down (a compromise with Lena) with feathers woven in. Her mask was firmly on her face to make up for going without her glasses. (She tried not to think of the obvious symbolism.) 

A champagne flute remains full and in her hand. 

An song drifts through the crowd, which makes her think of a smoky bar and a piano player. 

“ _I’m crossing you in style someday_ ,” she sings softly under her breath. 

“ _Oh dream maker, you heart breaker,_ ” a voice joins in behind her. “ _Wherever you’re going, I’m going your way.”_  

Kara blushes and turns around to find Barry watching her with an arched eyebrow and a bemused smile. His wears his tux well and confidently with a cape over his shoulders. The fringe of his hair falls across his forehead into his black Venetian mask with gold trim. 

Kara swallows thickly. 

“Who are you supposed to be?”

“Hades. Best I can do when I kept forgetting to get into the spirit. You look gorgeous.”

Kara’s hands flutter to her mask but drop when she remembers she doesn’t have her glasses tonight. 

“Thank you.” 

The two of them stand in an awkward silence. Again, Kara feels like she may have ruined things between them. Barry may have forgiven her for…hiding from him. That does’t meant things were good between them agin. 

“Do I still remind you of him?” 

“Who?” 

Barry tilts his head with assessing eyes. 

“Your friend who died. I haven’t seen you around much lately.” 

“I’m sorry. I just…” 

“I miss you, Kara. I don’t have a lot of people in the friend department.” 

A rush of air escapes her lungs. 

“I miss you too.” 

The instrumental of “Moon River” fades off into the distance. Moments later, “Helpless” takes its place. 

“Do you want to dance with me?” Barry blurts out. His fingers stroke the length of the stem of his wineglass. 

Kara blushes under her mask. 

“Sure.” 

Barry smiles. 

Kara’s heart goes boom. As the instrumental score swirls around them, Barry escorts Kara to the dance floor.

He may not be good at tap, but this Barry Allen sure knows his way around a ballroom floor.

* * *

Clearly in the grand scheme of things, the night was going far too well. 

Their dance at “Helpless” segues in to another and another. By dance five, Kara feels dizzy and bubbly like when she’s drunk. Barry’s smile is warm on his face. Kara’s also pretty sure she’s about fifteen feet away from Beyonce and that’s pretty freaking cool. 

“I’ve never really liked this parties before,” Barry admits. 

“I’ve only been to them because of my connection with Miss Grant. I still never really had gotten used to them." 

“Yeah? That’s a surprise.” 

“Why?” Kara asks. 

Barry grins, “Because I’m certain every time you walk into the ballroom, you would have that Cinderella moment. Everyone’s eyes on you.” 

Kara blushes at that. 

“That’s such a lame line, Doctor Allen.” 

“Miss Danvers, you make me into one big wrinkle.” 

“A wrinkle?” 

“Rather than smooth. You twist me up.”

“In a good way, I hope.” 

A smile turns up the corner of Barry’s mouth. He leans down closer. Kara turns her face up. 

“Definitely. Kara…” 

Their lips move closer together, about to touch. 

Naturally, this is when chaos breaks out. 

It’s hard to pinpoint what happens in the exact moment. Someone in a full-face mask grabs Lena from behind while others, wielding alien weaponry, hold up the place. 

Kara picks up something before the masked person and Lena disappear down a corrider. 

“Miss Luthor,” a female voice purrs from beneath the mask “Your brother has long owed me something that I intend to collect.” 

Celebrities and bigwigs duck for cover. Kara huddles underneath a table next to Barry, wishing there was a way for her to go change into her costume.

“Kara,” whispers Barry.

She snaps up looking at him in the eyes. He closes his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I wanted to tell you sooner." 

“Wha-?”

Barry opens his eyes.

And…

And they are the purest black that Kara has ever seen. She sucks in a breath as color bleaches from his skin. The shadows that surround them under the table come alive.

The truth or, more accurately, the realization of the truth comes in two primary forms. At least, they do in regard to Kara.

One is that it sneaks up gently. Slowly, this realization ensnares you. It wraps around you until it becomes a fact. It either feels good, like a hug, or bad, like you’re about to run out of air. This is how she realizes that Alex, sure as water is wet, is her sister. This is how Krypton’s death sinks into her.

The second? The second hurts more. Naturally, this is the one that Kara is intimately familiar with. In this one, the truth comes at you with the force and power of a two by four to the head. It knocks you off your feet. It leaves you grasping at straws. For the past three years, this is how Kara has felt with every new revelation. 

This? Well it was a mixture of the two. Barry’s pure black eyes shock her but not. Perhaps, she knew subconsciously. The realization of this conscious thing rears its brutal head.

“Phantasm,” she breathes.

“Yes. Supergirl.”

A cold feeling settles into her gut. Now is not the time to deny things, not with people in trouble.

“You know?”

“Kara,” Barry says. “I’m pretty damn smart. I know. Lena too probably.”

Kara decides to pin that problem for later.

“She needs our help. The person, a woman, she wants something from Lena. Something about her brother.”

“Fuck,” curses Barry. “Lex goddamn Luthor always gets into things he can’t understand.”

“He does.”

“I know he does. How do you think I got these powers? It’s one of the reasons why I hate him so much.” 

Barry closes his eyes again. 

“I’ll cause a distraction.” 

“Barry…” 

“Trust me. I can handle the people. You need to rescue Lena.” 

Kara nods. 

Barry smiles and flips up the hood of his cape. The darkness descends over his face until Kara’s X-ray vision is blocked.

“Good luck, Supergirl.”

“You too, Phantasm.” 

With a dash of super speed, Kara is out of the room within seconds of the shadows of the bad guys dragging them into the darkness. 

* * *

At her fastest speed, it takes Kara about ninety seconds to fly, change from her gown and accessories, and fly back. Not her most sterling performance, but the feathers in her hair had to be taken out.

“Heading to LCorp,” Kara informs the DEO on her comm.

“Phantasm has cleared the other hostages and knocked out their captors,” Alex informs her. “We’re taking that part of the building now.”

“I’ll go ahead and handle Lena and our kidnapper.”

“Phantasm believes that it’s the Blacksmith.”

“Phantasm can speak for himself,” Barry breaks in with the Phantasm reverb. “The hired goons products have Blacksmith’s mark on them. My guess is the leader is the Blacksmith.” 

Kara steadied herself in the air and began scanning the LCorp building for Lena. 

“Would the Blacksmith get dirty like this?” Winn asks.

“If I was the Blacksmith and Lex Luthor promised me something, then I would want to collect. Personally. Granted I wouldn’t take Lex Luthor’s word, but we have our issues.” Barry confesses.

Finally, Kara sees two people in an unleaded part of the building. It looks like Lena and their potential Blacksmith. 

“Got ‘em.” 

“I want to help,” Barry cuts in. 

“Back up. Stick to the shadows. I’ll bring the boom.” 

A pause. Winn laughs. Alex sighs. J’onn, who has been listening in, makes a pained noise. 

“Woooooow Supergirl,” drawls Barry. 

“I regretted it the minute it came out of my mouth,” she admits as she flies in.

* * *

 _This is how Vohc-the-Builder becomes Vohc-the-Breaker._

_After the destruction of his latest creation, even the magnificent monument to Flamebird and Nightwing, Vohc could not build. He hid from his friends and did not heed Rao’s calls for an audience._

_He was alone._

_In this loneliness, Vohc stewed. He had used his gifts, gladly and without complaint. Over and over, he had rebuilt the world. He had flooded it with marvelous creations._

_Continuously, it was destroyed. He well and truly resented this duty._

_No longer will he exist only to build. He will break too._

_And this is what he plans to break, the divide of the Darkness that Rao maintains. Those terrible things that Nightwing hunts will be able to walk in Rao’s light without punishment._

_So with his many arms, Vohc sets about to build one last thing, to break down the wall into the Darkness._

_To let things that should truly be destroyed into Rao’s light._

* * *

The Blacksmith turns out to be a powerfully built older woman with blonde hair and sharp eyes. 

“Supergirl,” breathes Lena in relief. 

“Well, well, well the Girl of Steel,” the Blacksmith greets. “How…fascinating.” 

“It’s over, Blacksmith.” 

“Is it? Because from where I’m standing? Nothing is over yet. I have my enterprise. And if you thought Roulette got out fast well…it has nothing on me.” 

Kara flexes her hand. 

“Let her go.” 

“Hmmm no. Lex Luthor owed me something. A rather interesting concoction. For all his talk of human genius, he wanted to give other powers.” 

Lena and Kara both suck in a breath at that. 

“And he promised me a chance to build a network of powered individuals. Metahumans, he called them. I want the formula.” 

“I don’t have it,” insists Lena. “I’m still digging up my brother’s hidey holes.” 

“Now that’s a lie.” 

“It’s the truth!” 

The Blacksmith growls. Kara uses the moment to get between her and Lena. 

“I must admit, Supergirl,” the Blacksmith purrs. “Your loyalty is commendable. If you were more easily bought, then well perhaps you would have made a good bodyguard. As of now though well…” 

The Blacksmith’s hand turns metallic.

“Well let’s just say that Lex was gracious enough to show me how well it works.”

She swings her solidly metal fist. Kara pulls Lena down before popping up.

Blacksmith cracks her neck and flexes her fingers, sparks begin to dance around them. 

“Nth metal,” she explains. “A fascinating substance. Luckily I only need a small amount of metal to activate my powers.” 

Kara swallows at the pride of Thanagar. 

“I just wonder how much electricity I need to generate to stop your heart. Or hers. When I get what I need.” 

“Lena run!” 

Lena scrambles and takes off down the hallway. Kara turns to the Blacksmith with a punch, but her body is too much of the nth metal now. It absorbs her attack. Kara desperately attempts to remember about Nth metal as she dodges an electric strike. 

But that was something only the higher level of Kryptonian scholars really studied in death. It was volatile. Only the Thanagarians really knew how to work it. Even her father and uncle didn’t like to mess with it. Nth metal is unstable because it depends on the person wielding it. 

Kara dodge another blow, but the Blacksmith’s other fist catches her by surprise. She screams as electricity courses through her body. 

She falls to the ground, spasming and unable to get back up. The Blacksmith watches her in disinterest with her sharp eyes. 

“A Kryptonian body on the black market should fetch quite a pretty penny.” 

“I wouldn’t count her out yet,” Barry answers from behind. Shadows curl around Blacksmith’s legs and pull her down into the floor. 

“Phantasm,” Blacksmith growls. 

“Blacksmith. Nice to meet you face to face.” 

“I wish I could say the same.” She turns and strikes her metal fist to the shadows, which hold firm. 

“You okay, Supergirl?” calls Barry. “Help is on its way.”

The shakes and spots are fading away. Kara nods and stands. 

“It’s over.” 

Blacksmith turns her silvery face toward Kara. 

“It’s not over until it is over, Supergirl. I will have Luthor’s formula.” 

She brings her metal fists down, shattering the shadows. 

Barry flickers into the shadows as Blacksmith tries to punch him. He reappears next to Kara’s side. 

“Together then, Supergirl?” 

“Together, Phantasm.” 

The shadows spring up around her protectively. Kara’s eyes tighten in that difficult to explain warmth and itch as her heat vision warms. 

Blacksmith turns with her Nth metal body. She rolls her shoulders and electricity arcs off of her. 

The fight truly begins. 

* * *

 _The end begins not with a whimper but with a bang._

_Vohc-the-Breaker is known for his cleverness. His keen and vacuous eyes hold a spark of intelligence. His many arms have even more clever fingers attached to them. He observes all and thinks three steps ahead._

_It’s a shame how such a keen can be so corrupted._

_Vohc treads light. He avoids Rao’s light. He sidesteps Nightwing’s shadows. He scurries away from Flamebird’s brightness. He cradles his greatest and final creation close as he walks toward the barrier where those who hide from Rao’s light hide._

_It is solid, but not perfect. Rao’s blood can only do so much. There are gaps, cracks and fissures which can be easily exploited._

_Things can no longer remain as they are._

_They can no longer be who they once were. Things cannot continue as they have._

_It’s only as Vohc-the-Breaker shatters the cracks, releases the ills of the Darkness upon the universe, that Flamebird and Nightwing try to stop him. Her fire and his shadow swirl together in perfect harmony._

_Vohc-the-Breaker, Vohc-the-Betrayer, The First Heretic of Rao crumbles._

_He is, however, triumphant._

_The ills and ails of the Darkness spill out into Rao’s light._

_It’s too late._

_As it felt like the world was about to end, Flamebird reached out to Nightwing and kissed him. Their bodies melding into each other as the onslaught of ills bear down on them._

* * *

Kara has to be careful not to flare out her powers. As much as she wants to end this, being powerless against a person covered in Nth metal would not end well for her. 

Between her heat vision and the shadow constructs of Barry, they seem to be making some small dent. 

Too small though for it to matter. 

“This isn’t working,” grits out Barry angrily. 

“No. It’s not. We need…We need something to disrupt the Nth metal.” 

“We’re coming, Supergirl,” Alex reassures through the comm. “Winn is trying to find something.” 

“We need to disrupt it somehow,” Winn mutters. “Times like this I wished we had a Flash on this Earth. Any chance you can break the sound barrier, Supergirl?” 

“This Earth?” mutters Barry under his breath. And that? Well that’s going to lead into a very, very long talk.

Kara focuses on the task at hand. 

“I can try. But I need a clear shot.” 

Phantasm nods, “I can give you one.” 

“She needs to stay still.” 

“Now that? I can only promise, Supergirl. Go and break the sound barrier.” 

Kara nods, turning her heat vision to the boots that the Blacksmith was wearing. Luckily, those are more cooperative, melting into the floor.

She turns and flies off as the shadows surround the Blacksmith. 

* * *

Kara lands in the desert where she rolls her shoulders.

It wouldn’t be the first time that she broke the sound barrier. Sometimes she would do it when she was flying, especially a fast trip to the Fortress of Solitude.

This would be the first time she did it when she was running, but if it disrupted the Nth metal that Blacksmith used to coat her body? Kara would take it. Nth metal was adaptable, but if this work then they would have enough of a moment to bring her in.

Kara closes her eyes as she gets into the starting position.

 _Barry_ , she prays to her friend trapped within the Speed Force, _give me some help._

Kara inhales and exhales, letting everything within her calm.

She starts to run.

* * *

Under the yellow sun of Earth, speed comes naturally to Kara. Under the red sun of Krypton, speed also came naturally to Kara. She was always an exceptionally quick child.

Kara runs, faster and faster. Her legs and lungs start to burn as she increases her speed. She needs to this. She needs to make this work.

That’s when she feels the electricity build underneath her skin. Kara pushes on, quicker and quicker. 

And then, she sees it. She sees it the second she hear a BOOM. 

A flash of golden lightening with another close behind. In an instant, for an instant, she sees him. 

Barry Allen of Earth-1 runs besides her like a mirage. His shaggy hair blows back with a beard on his face. His eyes are entirely consumed by electricity. 

He stares across at her, gives her a sad smile. For a second, he says something but Kara cannot hear it.

Then he’s gone. He disperses into electricity which wraps around her hand.

Kara rears it back and slams it into Blacksmith’s face, sending her sprawling back as the metal drains from her skin. The electricity buzz underneath her skin disappears.

“Supergirl,” Barry begins slowly. “Who was that man and why does he look like me with a beard?” 

Moments later, the DEO breaks down the door, saving Kara from explaining about multiverses in the middle of the LCorp hallway.

* * *

Lena is safe. Kara sees the knowing look in her gaze as she thanks Supergirl for her help. It reminds Kara all too much about the look in Cat Grant’s gaze. 

Talking with Lena Luthor about her identity is a talk long in coming. One that she plans to have as soon as she recovers from the talk she’ll have with Barry.

Barry disperses once Blacksmith is safely into custody. Kara quickly makes some excuses and takes out her come before flying away.

She finds Barry at the top of the Catco building again. This time, however, his bare face looks up at her.

“Kara,” he greets.

“Barry.”

She lands gently next to him.

“So I guess that friend I looked like who died…it wasn’t just a passing look, huh?”

Kara shakes her head, “He’s not even dead. He’s trapped in void of extradimensional energy where he gets his super speed from.”

“Huh,” Barry says.

“I don’t even know the details. But there was an evil clone involved.”

“God this night is weird.”

Kara laughs, edge on hysterical.

“I haven’t even gotten to the fact that he’s from another dimension entirely.”

“The Flash that Agent Schott mentioned?”

“Yeah. He’s a friend.”

“And what am I?”

“Complicated,” Kara says. “Very complicated.”

“I do try.” He pauses. “I hate to be that kind of guy, but I need to ask if…”

“We were super friends. Honestly, when I realized that I liked you? It was disconcerting. The other Barry has fiancée on his Earth, Iris. Bizarrely, I felt like I was standing between them.”

She looks down at her folded hands. Barry places his hand on top of hers.

“I’m not him.”

“No. No you’re not,” Kara squeezes his hand. “The only Barry Allen I’ve ever want to do this with is you.”

“Do wha-?”

Kara cuts him off with a kiss.

In the history of kisses, it probably wasn’t the best. Kara lips touch Barry’s teeth more than his own lips. Barry accidentally bites the skin above Kara’s lip as he tries to get his mouth into kissing order. But it was…real.

It was real.

Even though they had other things to worry about soon enough. For now, the reality of it was enough to sustain them. 

* * *

_Rao found them all eventually._

_Vohc’s broken body laid at what would be known as the Crack of Oblivion, which leads to the deepest point in all of Krypton._

_Nightwing’s burned out form and Flamebird’s shadowed remains were entwined together. It was hard to tell what had killed them: the kiss or the shockwave. Still they were together in death._

_So moved at this sight, Rao picked up what remained of starry-eyed Nightwing and flame-haired Flamebird. He did a wondrous thing._

_“Your love, my children, could never be while you lived. It pains me to say such a thing. So may you live ever more together and may the world see your love.”_

_Now that the things which hide in the Darkness roamed the Earth in Rao’s light, so should those in Rao’s light wander in the Darkness. This is how the day and the night were created. This is why at dusk and at dawn, we see them mingle together. Every day, as light and dark mingle together, we see the proof of this love._  

* * *

It takes Kara three days to send word to Earth-1 about what she had seen.

In the aftermath of the Blacksmith’s arrest, the DEO in conjunction with the NCPD (science division and otherwise) do a coordinated strike to her various holdings. They clean out everything they can, make a ton of arrests as well.

Her black book will keep prosecutors busy for months.

Kara provides aide where she can during those days. During that time, she gets maybe five hours of sleep between that period. She writes an article about the attack at the LCorp Charity Ball (in conjunction with Catco Worldwide Media).

Kara has to deal with Miss Grant’s frankly knowing gaze when she turns it in. Plus there are comments about Kara and that “scarily similar looking man to your mysterious speedy friend _Barry_ except that he looked like he never met me before”.

Luckily, she was called in to help a raid at that exact moment.

In between the moments of raiding warehouses and writing articles, there was just a lot of talking. Barry, apparently, revealed himself to J’onn. The two of them locked themselves into J’onn’s little used office to iron out some kind of deal. 

“Work release,” Barry admits with a twist of his lips.

“Why confess your identity?” Kara asks.

“Because, for some reason, I don’t want you to lie to your family about me. Besides I’ve done the whole criminal Robin Hood thing. Maybe I should actually try to work for the law. Annoying as it is.”

“You didn’t have to do that for me.”

“You were part of the reason,” Barry says but he looks off. “The major reason was maybe I want to be a better man than those that made me.”

Once deals were sealed. Criminals arrested. Articles written. Relief shared. Drinks had. Kara shares another kiss with Barry that easily tops their first and heads home.

She makes plans with Lena to have a long overdue talk about her identity. Kara then passes out in her bed for twelve hours.

When she wakes, Kara finds her mind drifting to Earth-1 Barry. The Barry who appeared to assist her in saving the day, who tried to say something to her.

Kara plays the scene over and over in her head until she realizes what he said. Kara then sits up in bed and immediately starts getting dressed.

She needs to go to Earth-1. 

* * *

STAR Labs looks as sleek as ever underneath the façade of a science museum. The security, however, is a bit laughable.

Wally appears moments later in the main hall. She can hear the approach of the other members of Team Flash.

“Kara?” Wally asks in surprise.

“Is Iris here? I need to see her.”

“I’m here, Kara. What’s wrong?” Iris says as she turns the corner with her father.

Kara swallows.

“Can we talk in private?”

There’s a hesitance from everyone _but_ Iris, who nods.

“Sure. Do you like coffee? We’ll go get a cup.”

“Iris,” begins Cisco.

“It’s fine,” Iris assures them. “C’mon Kara. We’ll talk.” 

* * *

“We don’t have a Jitterz where I’m from,” Kara admits as they sit down with their coffee. “I’m not sure if it’s an alternate Earth thing or a regional thing though.”

Iris laughs as she sits down with their orders: a mug of milky tea for Kara and a Flash special for her.

“So what was so important that you had to jump universes to see me?” Iris asks. “And only me?”

“I saw Barry,” Kara blurts out. “Your Barry, Earth-1 Barry, I mean the other Barry I know has powers too apparently, but he’s not a speedster.”

Iris stares at her for several seconds before going with the most relevant piece of information.

“You saw Barry?”

Kara nods. She quickly explains about the ball, about the identity of Phantasm, about the Blacksmith, about needing to punch the metal from her skin.

“Super-sonic punch,” Iris mutters. “Barry did something like that.”

“I must have gotten close enough to the Speed Force. Right before I punched her…I saw Barry. I couldn’t hear him but he was trying to say something to me. And I finally got a chance to figure out what it was.”

Iris leans closer, wild hope in her eyes.

“What did he say?”

“He said, _Iris. Come and see._ ”

Iris sucks in a breath at that.

“Does that make sense to you?”

Iris sucks in a breath at that. She closes her eyes and wipes a tear that escapes. Her hands tremor for a moment before she answers.

“When we were little, we would play hide and seek a lot. Barry was an excellent hider. Usually, he would win the game. When…when he wanted to be found that’s what he would say. Come and see.” 

“What do you think that means?”

Iris opens her eyes, determination settling over her shoulders.

“I think it means that he wants to come home.”

Kara reaches over and squeezes Iris’ hand.

“Then bring him home.”

Iris’s smile is like the sun. 

* * *

_Of course, the dawn and the dusk is just a story passed through the ages. There is another way for this story to end as well._

_It is said that Rao blessed Nightwing and Flamebird with another gift: a true chance._

_Every generation, or so it goes, the two are reborn again and again. They do not know this, but they always seek each other out. They always find each other and fall in love._

_This is why, when Kryptonians marry for love, the legends of Nightwing and Flamebird is always invoked.  It is a reminder that perhaps they have found each other again._

_Because what can be more beautiful, than the darkness and the light continually falling in love with each other? What can be more beautiful than love?_  

* * *

Kara gets the news of Barry’s return from the limbo of the Speed Force on a drizzly day that demands cozy sweaters and hot chocolate. The communique from Iris sounds overjoyed. It took some doing, but they somehow got Barry back: healthy, whole, and in full mind.

He and Wally are both going to be the Flash. Both are getting new costumes made by an ecstatic Cisco. 

Kara smiles at the news from her blanket cocoon. She sends Iris a message back, asking for details about their nuptials. She also asks her to tell Barry that she’s glad he’s back, super friend and all. And thanks for the help with Blacksmith, even if he doesn’t remember it.

“What’s that smile?” Her Barry asks from the kitchen. His eyes are Vantablack but his smile is bright as the sun. Tendrils of shadow place fresh from the oven cookies onto a plate. Salted caramel hot chocolate wafts through her apartment.

“Your alternate self is alive and well,” Kara informs him. “The one on Earth-1 anyway.” 

Barry pads over in his bare feet cookies and cocoa trailing after him. 

“Mister White Hat? Good to hear. Back with his Daisy?” 

“Iris.” 

“Right. Well I knew her as Daisy.”

Barry collapses on the couch next to her and wraps an arm around her. Kara cuddles close to him. 

“Yeah. They’re back together. Planning a wedding. Not a hint by the way.” 

“Good. Not that I don’t like you an embarrassing amount, but marriage talk is still awhile off.”

Kara took a mug of cocoa and a cookie from the table. 

“You know on Krypton I’d be consider a spinster and wanton woman?” 

Barry turns bemused green eyes to her, “Really?” 

Kara tries to give him her best sexy look, but it probably loses something with the cookie in her mouth. 

“Yeah,” she mumbles around a bite. Barry kisses her temple. 

“Well o mighty seductress, let’s go on with our wanton ways by watching _Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries._ ” 

Kara giggles at his wry tone and cuddles closer, wrapping some of the huge fuzzy microplush blanket around him as well. 

“Perfect for a rainy day.”  
  
“Even Supergirl deserves a cozy day inside,” agrees Barry as he turns on the episode. 

Kara sighs in agreement as she rests her cheek against him. 

“Actually, there is one thing that I need to give you back.” 

“Which is?”

Barry presses a Swiss Army Knife with the crest of the House of El inscribed on it. Kara cannot help but laugh. Clark will be pleased. 

“I’m gonna meet him sooner or later. Might as well make a good first impression.”

Kara turns her face into his chest to laugh.

It was raining in National City, but it was still a beautiful day for Kara Danvers.


	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a wedding and an answered question.

Kara was exhausted yet glad that most of the mess was left on Earth-X when they returned back to Earth-1. Barry, her Barry’s, arm was steady around her waist. It was equal parts for comfort for them both, but also because she sprained (formerly broke) her ankle in single armed combat against Overgirl.

The less said about her, the better. 

“So that was an interesting cross-dimensional outing,” Barry comments from under his hood. Relatively, he got out unscathed. His shadows providing cover and constructs for them to fight back. Sometimes, foot soldiers had their own necks snapped by their own shadow. 

Much like alien invaders trying to take over Earth, her Barry probably wasn’t going to lose sleep over snapping Nazi necks. 

Neither was Kara, to be honest.

“Poor Barry and Iris,” she murmurs against him. “Their wedding shouldn’t have been interrupted like that.” 

“Superhero’s luck,” her Barry says simply. 

Still the return to the ruined hall, still in the same chaos as when they had left it. Iris rushes to Barry (scarlet and gold costume) and Wally (crimson and silver with more pronounced lightning bolts) who set about reassuring her. 

They must not have been gone long on Earth-1. Iris still wears her wedding dress. 

Everyone stands awkwardly off the side. Tired and filty from battle, Oliver scratches the back of his neck. 

“We need to do something,” he says. Murmurs of agreement erupt from everyone else at that. 

“How can we fix all of this?” Cisco demands, gesturing to the wreckage of decorations. 

Kara clears her throat and turns her gaze pointedly to her boyfriend. 

“I was really hoping for a shower,” he mutters. 

“It’s a nice thing to do.” 

Barry sighs. His hand moves to stroke the back of her neck before he takes center stage. 

“I can fix most of it. Not permanently, but if I keep my shadows going we can have a ceremony and a small reception before I pass out and Kara has to drag me home.”

“I can probably fix some things as well,” admits Caitlin as she gives the room a critical eye. 

“We’ll need an officiant,” mutters Nate. 

“Got it handled,” grunts Mick. 

Everyone turns to look at him. 

“Got ordained in Aruba.” 

“I can get a cake here,” Sara says with a flick of her hair. “Time travel does have its uses after all. Who’s up for a trip to get food and some booze? And our nice clothes?” 

“I suppose someone has to be the responsible party here,” J’onn dryly says before following her and small contingent out. 

Her Barry squeezes her waist one more time before going over to Caitlin. Together shadow and ice begin to repair the destroyed room. 

Kara tiredly floats over to Alex, who raises an eyebrow. 

“What’s going on?” 

“A wedding. Phantasm and Caitlin are fixing things up. People are getting the things we need.” 

“And he’s going to keep his hood up?"

“No need to steal the spotlight from the bride and groom.” 

“I thought they knew.” 

“All of Team Flash probably knows. I told Iris, but no need to take the focus off them with Phantasm’s identity. Besides it’s a wedding Alex. You’re getting married soon. It’s good practice.” 

Alex blushes. Kara grins. 

“Maybe you’ll catch the bouquet or the garter. That should be good luck.” 

Alex pushes her lightly, “Well we might as well get you looking presentable for the wedding, huh?”

“Speak for yourself, Agent Danvers,” Kara says with a grin.

* * *

The wedding of Iris West and Barry Allen paints of a picture of beautiful chaos. A redo of the ceremony will be done for blood relatives and workmates.

But this? Surrounded by metahumans and aliens and assassins? This is the family that Iris West and Barry Allen have made for themselves. Icicles catch dim light as shadows black as night keep trellises and canopies upright. 

Iris and Barry glow with love for each other. By the time the couple recite their vows, there is not a dry eye in the house as they pledge their love for each other. 

Kara watches as Iris and Barry share their first dance to “Baby It’s You”. 

“Nice ceremony,” says her Barry from behind.

Kara reaches down and takes his hand in hers. 

“It looks beautiful in here.” 

“Almost worth all the Phantom of the Opera jokes.” 

“Almost?” 

“You in that dress makes it all worth it.” 

Kara rolls her eyes fondly as she smooths down the pale blue dress she dug up. 

“You’re such a dork.” 

“I’m your dork.” 

“That’s true,” Kara agrees. “You gonna save a dance for me, Phantasm?” 

“Always.” 

Kara watches as Barry twirls Iris across the floor. She rubs her finger over her Barry’s knuckles. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Anything.” 

Kara breathes in sharply. 

“Is it weird? Seeing what your life might have been?” 

“It’s…interesting. Bittersweet in a lot of ways. Despite the circumstances, he seems to have had a happier life. Circumstances though are just different. I’m just thinking of us like cousins that a look alike.” 

“And that helps?”

He shrugs at her question. 

“It’s helping me. Why do you ask?” 

Kara bites her lip. 

“I keep meaning to…” 

“Krypton.” 

“It’s silly.” 

“It’s not silly, Kara.” 

“We couldn’t tell if it was still there though,” she murmurs. 

“Well not us but…” 

He glances outside to wear the Waverider sits. 

“Oh.” 

Kara can’t see his face, but she knows Barry is smiling underneath his hood. 

“C’mon. While everyone is distracted by the bride and groom.” 

Carefully, the pair of them stepped into the shadows.

* * *

The Waverider is truly a marvel of futuristic technology. Kara twists the skirt of her dress in her hands. 

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she whispers. 

“You should get your answers,” Barry affirms as they walk into the main hub. A slivery face appears to greet them. 

“Welcome Phantasm, Supergirl. How can I assist you?” greets Gideon. 

Kara swallows. 

“Gideon do you have information on other planets?” 

“If they are known to Earth, then I do.” 

Barry squeezes her hand tighter. Kara bites her lip. She takes a deep and uncertain breath. She is loved and happy on her Earth with family, friends, and a man who loves her. She doesn’t need to know this. 

(But she wants to know. She has to know.) 

With certainty in the love of her family, friends, and the man next to her, the knowledge that she lives good and happy life; Kara asks the next question.

“Does Krypton live?”

A pause that seems to last forever echoes in the space. 

“Yes.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come and say hi on my [Tumblr!](http://hopenight.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Depending on my mood, this may or may not become a series.


End file.
